


Absolution

by ItsClydeBitches



Category: RWBY
Genre: 6.2, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Fic acting as catharsis, Fix-It, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Touch-Starved, Uncovered, it had to be done
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 05:01:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16527881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsClydeBitches/pseuds/ItsClydeBitches
Summary: Ozpin isn't sure what he expects when Ruby is granted the power to know anything and everything about him... but her turning around to offer him a hand up isn't it.(A self-indulgent fix-it fic for Volume Six's "Uncovered")





	Absolution

**Author's Note:**

> I regret nothing! Ozpin is my fave. Ruby is my fave. Expected conflict in storytelling aside, I would have liked for things to end differently. Luckily, there's fic ;) 
> 
> SPOILERS for Volume Six! You have been warned

“Do whatever you think is best, kiddo.”

Ozpin had always preferred to have his hands bare. The smooth metal of his cane, the warmth of a coffee mug... these things kept him grounded and helped to remind him that even the smallest pleasures were still worth fighting for. Yes, some days it came down to soft fur or light rain. He’d be that desperate.

Oscar had grown up wearing gloves. Hard work on the farm demanded it and he’d grown used to how tightly they hugged his skin, emotionally fitted like a childhood blanket. It was comforting, the protection they seemed to give, even if he never said as much aloud. It was the one part of his wardrobe Ozpin had wished to change and the one thing that Oscar outright refused to let go.

When Ruby turned to offer him a hand up Ozpin thought he was dreaming and that barrier between them provided no reassurances. He flexed his fingers as he stumbled to his feet, eagerly searching for the feeling of someone—anyone— touching him in kindness. The last had been Qrow. Weeks ago he’d pulled Ozpin out of Leo’s line of fire ( _another friend trying to kill me_ ) which spoke more about his instincts as a Hunter than any real concern he might have for him. Ozpin had cherished it though, putting the memory of arms around his shoulders deep, deep into the recesses of his mind where even Oscar couldn’t reach it. Now Qrow looked like touching him would be the ultimate revulsion.

Ozpin was used to that look.

Everyone was shouting.

He couldn’t make out the words though. The moment Jinn had appeared it was like cotton balls had filled up his ears, keeping his own voice trapped inside with a steady refrain of _no, no, no, please no_. Even Oscar had gone silent. Ozpin could still see though and he ached at the anger on everyone’s faces: Yang screaming at Ruby, Blake’s ears nearly flattened against her skull, Weiss with Myrtenaster still leveled at Qrow’s throat, Ruby—planting her feet but also ducking her head. It was when she finally looked up that Ozpin caught something:

“Jinn? Can you go back inside the relic, please?”

“…Yes,” Jinn said, her tone disappointed, but also… something else. Something important that Ozpin’s fuzzy mind couldn’t place right now. He found himself swaying in place as wisps of blue smoke disappeared and the snow started to fall again. It took him long—too long—to realize that what he was feeling was relief.

 _I’m safe._ He wasn’t, but for a rare moment Ozpin could pretend.

There were harsh words from Yang as she demanded to know what Ruby had been thinking and hesitant words from Qrow as he tried to bring them back together. Blake and Weiss took hold of the relic, trying to re-summon Jinn, only to find that once dismissed she could not be recalled again for some time. Quicker than one might suspect given the high emotions, they were back on the road—metaphorically speaking, at least. Ozpin supposed it was because there was nothing left for them to do. They wished to rend his secrets from him and could not. Like a man gripping a vine decked in thorns, Ozpin could not let go unless he wished to tear large chunks of himself away in the process… and after recent events he simply could not either. Oh, it never ended for him, but there were still lulls that he cherished and hoarded. These past few months had not been one of them. The attack on Amber, James’s distrust, the fall of his beloved school, his death, (paling in comparison to) Pyrrha’s, Penny’s, the long weeks convincing a young boy to leave his home, the heaviness he saw in Qrow when he handed back his cane, Haven, Leo’s betrayal… All of it seemed to have started when he first saw—

Silver eyes. Ruby was walking towards him.

It made him stumble. They’d separated out and had stayed that way for the last hour: Qrow leading with stooped shoulders, Blake and Weiss watching one another’s back, Yang taking out her anger by pushing her bike and Maria through the snow, Ozpin walking behind them all, keeping his distance. Ruby had been somewhere in the middle until now when she stopped, turned with a crunch of snow, and marched straight to his side. The relic swung from her belt and seeing it made Ozpin’s skin itch.

That was all him. Oscar had been silent ever since he’d told Ruby about Jinn, and what Ozpin could still feel of him was faint and reserved. He’d been left to deal with this on his own. There’d be no hiding behind his host this time.

Ozpin stretched his fingers. It felt like there was something wet and heavy pressed against his chest.

“Hey,” Ruby said, voice quiet and squeaky.

“…Hello, Ms. Rose.”

For some reason that made her wince and Ozpin didn’t know if it was the formality, or if he hadn’t made his tone as inviting as he’d hoped. His throat felt raw and scratchy right now. Like he’d been screaming.

He wanted to say something then as Ruby synched up her steps with his, though heaven only knew what it would be. Thank you? I’m sorry? He’d given them both plenty of times and it hadn’t made a difference. So now, body weighted like he’d fought off a thousand grimm, the wind (yes, the wind) tearing up his eyes, the only thing that tumbled out was,

“Why?”

For once Ruby didn’t dance around the subject. Ozpin supposed he needed to thank her for that too. For now though, he listened.

“I don’t know,” she said after a long moment, watching her teammates’ backs. Her eyes jumped over each in turn, a revolving door of worry that wasn’t ever going to close. “Not exactly. I’ve been thinking about it and I know what I _wanted_ to do…” Her quick look, while not guilty exactly, did hold remorse. “But then Uncle Qrow said that and I guess I… I guess I saw you, sir.”

“Saw me?” he echoed faintly. Ozpin tried to conjure up an image of what he must have looked like back there and he succeeded a little too well, the picture knocking the breath right out of his lungs. A child’s body on his knees in the snow, rumpled and begging and desperate. Without conscious thought Ozpin immediately began following the threads of damage this would do; how irrevocably this would undermine what little faith in him they had left. Because it had been a pathetic display, hadn’t it? _This_ was their great leader? In what fantasy realm would they possibly—

“You looked human,” Ruby said, unaware of his thoughts yet slicing through them all the same. This time Ozpin didn’t so much lose his breath as feel it freeze slowly within him. “I’d… never seen that before. With you, I mean. You looked human and like… you needed help. And that’s why I became a Huntress.” Ruby nodded into the snow, more confident in her answer now. “We help people, and not just when it comes to grimm. You needed help, and right then I could help you. So I did. It seemed pretty simple thinking about it like that.”

Ozpin didn’t even realize he’d stopped walking. The others were getting farther away, oblivious to the conversation behind them, and somehow the illusion of privacy made it worse. Ruby was saying things she shouldn’t for the simple reason that Ozpin did not know how to process them. There was something like a dagger in his chest and his teeth chattered behind closed lips. When Ruby smiled at him Ozpin once again worried that he was lost in a dream.

“I uh… think I messed up another way though?” she laughed a little, scratching at the back of her head. “I kinda, um, _asked_ Jinn to go back into the relic so… does that count as a question?”

It did. Objectively speaking the loss of that potential knowledge could be devastating. But Ozpin shut his eyes and reveled for a moment in the fact that he didn’t care.

He was a selfish, tired man and if wasting a relic’s power got him this? _He didn’t care._

“Professor? Everything’s still kinda tense right now. I mean, you should probably give Yang some space, but… I’m not mad. Exactly. So, do you, uh… need a hug?”

It was so horrendously unexpected that the words startled an exclamation out of him, tapering off into too quick, too shallow breathing. A _hug_? Oh yes, he’d have liked a hug. Oscar was such a small lad they’d fit perfectly. A hug. Astounding. Simple and utterly taken for granted by those who received them. Thousands of years building up dignity and sophistication as shields… but gods, did they feel flimsy now. So yes, he’d have like a hug. So badly he _shook_ with it.

The cure was as dangerous as the disease though and Ozpin knew that if he let himself have this there would be no end to it. He would crack straight down the middle and scatter like dust—perhaps not irreparable, but he would not be easily fixed either. And he knew Ruby—what made her so very different from him—that she’d give and she’d give until there was nothing left of her to offer. Then he’d just have another sacrifice on his hands and no… no.

He needed something though. An anchor. Apologizing to Oscar for the smallest of his actions, Ozpin peeled off the glove on his right hand. Eyes still closed he extended it outwards.

For a long moment there was nothing but snow on his arm. Then Ruby’s warm fingers wrapped around his and Ozpin opened his eyes.

He didn’t break, but it was a near thing. He’d gambled and won, balancing now on a precipice where that simple contact hurt as much as it helped. Ozpin didn’t let go though. He wasn’t sure he’d have had the strength to if needed. Had Ruby pulled away he would have ended up back on his knees, begging for this with the same ferocity he’d begged for his secrets.

It felt like a miracle that he’d been granted both today. It felt like undeserved absolution.

Ruby gave a gentle tug and they started walking. For all the girls’ insistence that he could trust them, this was the first time it felt like truth. Suddenly, Ozpin was sure of only one thing.

Ruby would not let go. Not now, not in Atlas. Not as long as he needed help.

 


End file.
